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Which companion did you feel like the writers didn’t have a clear plan for?

Pokegirl Fan~

Liko>>>>>Ash
Serena imo especially during her first year.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
Not even gonna dig into low fat Contests and the fact they were introduced nearly half way into that series.

Instead I present Lana. Lana's development was chaotic and its mostly because they tried play it off and slide her off as this top battler during the last few episodes on SM without actually executing and showcasing her strength prior... it was like "well lol she's this strong battler now". Besides that totem battle we are given no reason to believe she's any strong than the other classmates but plot told us so I guess.

Actually never mind they had no idea what to do with Serena and Clemont early XY and mid to late XY respectively and it shows.

I know Mallow is an easy dig but I truly believe they had nothing planed for her anyway.

I currently think they have no idea what to do with Goh (and Ash) but we'll see how the Mew arc goes.

I'm willing to give Misty a pass due to her being in the original series and Ash was the main focus anyway.

The only people I think that had a clear(ish) path set for them was May, Dawn and Lillie in the first half of SM.
 
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AuraChannelerChris

Easygoing Luxray.
Max was weird.

Cilan, once Burgundy disappeared forever. He just became a clown.

Serena, at least because they seriously delayed things with her the first year. Then again, her profession is just stupid.

Clemont, after his gym battle was over. I still find the ridiculousness of giving him a Luxray to replace his busy Heliolisk (who totally betrayed him for no reason at the start) silly. The Shinx line isn't even native to Kalos unless it's a Friend Safari feature (that they didn't explore).

Pretty much every Alola companion. Kiawe because his "Fire of Alola" dream was just slightly more understandable but still very vague just as becoming a Pokemon Master, Lana because she only existed for gags and was given Pokemon she doesn't even have in the games (you couldn't be more aimless than her anime incarnation), Sophocles was just another Clemont really, and Mallow...removing her wish to impress Olivia with her cooking only made her much bare bones.

Goh, because of his strange super luck at catching random Pokemon. Some say it's to better understand Mew, but...I don't see it. He's just a show-off at this point and Ash is somehow not the least jealous.
 

JustAStatistic

Super Casual Trainer
Misty (a shame, because IMO a type master goal has so much untapped potential)

Max (???)

Iris (similar to Misty, but then just handed her game counterpart's role)

Serena during XY's first year ("she didn't know what she wanted to do!!" yeah neither did the writers)

Clemont after his gym battle

Alola companions (at least the writers didn't have to make up a reason to have them travel with Ash)

Lillie post Aether arc
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
Serena's the one that stands out the most given that she went about a year without a Pokemon related goal. Takeshi's goal was also flimsy and the fact that he became a doctor in the end instead of a bona fide Pokemon breeder like he initially wanted to be proves that the writers weren't consistent with his character arc.
 

AshxSatoshi

Ice Aurelia
Oh, right. Iris too. Just because she bonded with (all of the Unovan) Dragon-types...but they were from other trainers in a show where trainers don't really bond with other people's Pokemon. And the one she actually gets turns out to be a pain in the tushie to raise...and isn't an Unovan Dragon-type.
That’s not really lacking a clear plan it’s just you not liking the execution
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
I don't know, but having her wait a very long time to get a Dragon-type sounds really weird.

And the first capture she got onscreen...was an Emolga of all things.
Emolga has to fit the necessary Pikachu clone criteria that's literally been happening since Dawn. The only other option was Cilan since Ash already has a Pikachu. Like already said catching a bunch of Pokemon of another type doesn't automatically make you a type master because by that logic Misty was a Water Master upon debut.
 

AuraChannelerChris

Easygoing Luxray.
Emolga has to fit the necessary Pikachu clone criteria that's literally been happening since Dawn. The only other option was Cilan since Ash already has a Pikachu. Like already said catching a bunch of Pokemon of another type doesn't automatically make you a type master because by that logic Misty was a Water Master upon debut.
Then again, it was very strange from the start that she had an Excadrill as her first Pokemon only because of a technicality due to the line having a form of the word "dragon" in Japanese. Why not just give her an Axew first and later give her Excadrill.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
Then again, it was very strange from the start that she had an Excadrill as her first Pokemon only because of a technicality due to the line having a form of the word "dragon" in Japanese. Why not just give her an Axew first and later give her Excadrill.
The general consensus is that like most five year old she probably didn't know she wanted to be a Dragon Master at that point. Additionally Iris has always been a trainer who's allowed Pokemon to go with her if they want. Could you imagine the meltdowns if she caught him during the actual series when there is already complaints now about her time?
 
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DatsRight

Well-Known Member
As many have already said, Lana feels kinda amorphous and kinda just hinged on a gag personality that was conveniently good at everything. The same was sort of true for Cilan too, but it felt like they had him laid out better as a supporting character and what he could contribute to the BW group episode by episode.

I feel like after Kanto, they had very few ideas for Brock, likely because they had intended to replace him with Tracey.

There's a few I think they had little idea what to do with at the start of the series but had some sort of baseline thought up midway in I suppose. Serena and Mallow kinda fit into this (though I think they were still kinda limited outside episodes tailor made for them).

Concerning the other SM companions I struggle to say the same. They were a bit slapdash but it felt like they had their basic foibles and what key things to focus on throughout the series figured out pretty early on. Lillie's arc was one of the first things noted when we meet them, Kiawe was their favourite supporting character and his 'one trick pony' shortcoming was foreshadowed very early (they even made perfectly clear Kiawe would be joining Ash for the league the moment it was announced), and Sophocles' arc with Charjabug and his dynamic with the other boys started in the first series as well. There were things that felt annoyingly delayed about their development or fun details they could have done more with, but I place that more in the regard that SM never really stopped experimenting. Lana was about the only one it felt like they still hadn't really gotten a 'core' figured out by the end of the series.
 
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Captain Jigglypuff

Leader of Jigglypuff Army
Tracey and Cilan to an extent. Most of the time they were just there taking up space. Cilan had no actual reason to go traveling with Ash and Iris and was mainly there so that the other two wouldn’t starve to death. His recurring connoisseur gag got old really quick. Tracey was just awful though. He hardly did anything and he could have been used as a guide of the Orange Islands without any issues. But no. He just sat around and drew pictures 95% of the time and used his Pokémon (which aren’t that bad to use in the games) as tracking devices.
 
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